New meaning to interprovincial trade

So for years, Saskatchewan has sent its best and brightest to work in Alberta’s office towers and oilpatch. And, in turn, Alberta, because of a glitch in the system, has right of first refusal on its criminals, and can send its killers and rapists here.

The situation was highlighted this week when some began questioning why paroled Calgary child killer Harold Smeltzer lands at a Regina halfway house instead of one in Alberta.

Those same questions were asked almost a decade before when another Calgary rapist placed at Regina’s halfway house went on to sexually assault a Regina shopkeeper. And the same problem was revealed.

Here’s the snag — Regina and Winnipeg are the only places within the Correctional Service of Canada’s Prairie region that have federally-operated halfway houses. All of the halfway houses in Alberta are privately operated on contract to the federal government (Sask. and Man. also have those too.) But unlike the federally-operated centres, the private ones can pick and choose who comes in their doors — rejecting those they don’t want. No one is saying Smeltzer was rejected by the Alberta centres, but a spokesman did say placing someone outside their home province is a last resort when other options don’t exist.

Hmmm, maybe it’s time Alberta, with all its booming wealth, built a federally-operated halfway house.

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